Draftmix is a website that offers a novel approach to fantasy sports. A Draftmix “league” is a very short-term commitment – it lasts only a week. You participate in a normal fantasy football-style draft on a Wednesday, drafting players who you think will put up the best numbers in just that given week. The following Tuesday, payouts are awarded and that’s it – league over. Draftmix is aimed at those people who like playing fantasy football for money but are looking for some short-term gambling gratification.

Brandon and I first heard about Draftmix last year when we were invited to join the Draftmix Blogger Challenge (and thanks to big games from Joseph Addai and Hines Ward, we won). I’ve been keeping an eye on Draftmix ever since. I think it’s a fun concept that’s implemented very well. They’re still flying a bit under the radar at the moment, but they were just getting started in ’07 and I think they could really catch on in a big way this year.

This afternoon, I had a chat with Matt Maroon, part of the three-man Draftmix team (and a former professional poker player). (More …)

After participating in a few drafts so far, I just wanted to list a few wide receivers that I’ve either drafted, or seen drafted in the last few rounds that could help your fantasy team this year (or in future years if you’re in a keeper league):

Ted Ginn, Jr. (MIA): Should be the number one target for Chad Pennington in Miami, which means a lot more than it would have meant last season when the team was in complete disarray. Around 900 yards and five scores doesn’t seem out of the picture.

DeSean Jackson (PHI): With number one receiver Kevin Curtis out for an extended period of time undergoing surgery for a sports hernia and number two receiver Reggie Brown already having hamstring issues, Jackson will be thrust into the action to start the season. He’s looked good in preseason and if that carries over to the regular season, expect quarterback Donovan McNabb to look his way all year long.

Eddie Royal (DEN): Teammate Darrell Jackson was brought in to be the number two receiver alongside Brandon Marshall, but then the team drafted Royal, who has worked his way into a starting role this preseason. Expect Royal to put up some decent numbers in an offense that should be a lot better passing the ball this year, as Cutler will be a lot healthier after taming his diabetes and Marshall draws loads of attention from opposing defenses. (More …)

Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall has had his suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy reduced from three games to one game. When the suspension was first announced, it appeared that Marshall would have to go to counseling just to have it dropped to two games, but after appealing the suspension, he will now only miss one game (although he has agreed to forfeit his pay for 2 games…not sure if he still needs the counseling!) This is great news for fantasy football managers who have already drafted him (most likely at a semi-discounted value)…and for those who haven’t drafted yet, feel free to bump Marshall back up to his deserved spot on your cheat sheets.

A few nights ago, Matt and I participated in our keeper league’s draft (see our league’s rules here). As those of you who have already experienced a keeper/dynasty league know, it is quite a bit different than a standard league draft. For those of you who have not been lucky enough to partake in this kind of league before though, I just wanted to give you an idea of how they work and some things you need to be aware of come draft day.

Below you can see an image depicting the “keepers”, shown in the round they are to be taken, going into our draft (click for full size):

@Will Waugh: In our league, no one drafted in the first three rounds can be a “keeper” the next season. If you click the link in my first paragraph, you can see the rest of the rules we go by. I like the way we do it, because where’s the fun in the same person having LT every season? Making people keep players that they “earned” makes it a lot more fun in my opinion.

Just wanted to mention why I only had two keepers… ’twas due to a MONSTER screw-up on my part.

I had Michael Turner in two leagues, both of which were run on Yahoo. The other team was a redraft (non-keeper) league. Around mid-season, I decided to drop Turner in the redraft league because he didn’t appear likely to have a chance to start in ’07. Accidentally, I logged into the keeper league instead and dropped him from that team. Realized 30 seconds later what I had done, but it was too late, and he was obviously snapped up on waivers as soon as he cleared (just about everyone in the league put in a request). I would have been able to keep Turner with a 10th-round pick this season. My stomach turns every time I think about it.

As the mobile Web continues to mature, the fantasy football world is slowly finding ways to migrate from your PC to your pocket. Most of the major fantasy football providers now offer mobile access in some (usually limited, but improving) fashion. If you like the idea of on-the-go access to your fantasy teams as well as important player updates and other news, here are some resources to help you stay connected to fantasy football wherever you are. (More …)

You missed my new company (although thats not suprising since we just launched a few days ago). Blastats provides a mobile solution for fantasy football scoring. We can text full fantasy team scores to customers, email to them, and provide everyone with a mobile web page to track all of their teams from the top to bottom.

We are also unique in that we can work with any league host site out there. Plenty of people play on different sites, and we provide an all in one place service that sets us apart from everyone else.

After looking around your blog a bit, I can tell that you’re the kinda guy who would love our product. We’re growing fast right now, and looking to encorporate many new features by this time next year. If you could shoot me an email with some services you’d like to see available, we can add it to our list of things to do this offseason.

A couple of final notes. Although CBS claims their service is “free”, it is not. You get charged either 3.99 or 4.99 a month for it by your cell carrier. And Yahoo isn’t free either, not if you want your stats on your cell. Its 9.99, and I’m starting to wonder where it is too.

Yeah, but that is just SMS text alerts for player news, BLASTATS sends your scoring updates for leagues across yahoo, espn & sportsline, etc, not just that Manning threw a TD, but how many fantasy points you got for that TD.